You shouldn’t reason and debate in an old-fashioned way and your taste should be up-to-the-minute.
Telling the truth and keeping your word are unknown today and seem like things from the past. Good men, although always loved, seem relics of better times, and so even if there happen to be any, they’re not emulated because they’re not in fashion. The misfortune of your century, virtue is taken as unusual and malice as the norm.
Given the day’s afternoon activity consisted of yet another cruise and meal along the Chao Phraya River and commenced with a 08:00 departure one might say a long breakfast with other tour hooky people and two pots of jasmine tea overlooking the river was preferable. What a breakfast…as usual with papaya, mango, dumpling soup and Pad Thai on my buffet plate. Breakfasts so far at the Peninsula Bangkok and Singapore Shangri-La have been something to write home about.
Horror of horrors with my watch battery dying so instead of walking to the Icon Siam Mall to buy a battery I rode the Peninsula Bangkok water shuttle a beautifully restored ship with a captain that looked like a captain with his naval outfit.
A three-minute trip and a huge Diwali celebration at the Icon Siam pier. Cheap souvenirs, textiles, food and music. Finally found a jeweller hidden away to be and for $10 CDN a new watch battery.
Being a seafaring man, I took the return shuttle to what I thought to be the Peninsula but a return to the wrong hotel as we sailed on past the Peninsula Bangkok. Twenty minutes upriver past glitz and poverty. Dilapidated corrugated steel dwellings, rusty boats, clubs and restaurants. The crew were rough n ready types and the captain looked like a boat operator and not a captain. A slight smell of diesel fumes. The arrival hotel was where we had launched our welcome cruise two days ago so a quick trip to the WC. Jasmine tea is my favourite however the two pots caused immediacy on the bladder if you know what I mean. The return ferry which I had to wait for a few minutes dropped me back at Icon Siam Mall, so I walked home in nasty heat and humidity. I dropped into the 7-11 for a cold beer but no beer can be sold until after 17:00 and as it was just 16:00 I settled for a large mango juice and returned to the hotel. A sense of public morality with a city known for its decadence of which I witnessed none of. The Thai I encountered are polite, modest and welcoming if you behave and dress appropriately. There is a certain discrete disapproving look the Thai give to scantily dressed tourists which speaks forcefully about the Thai national character.
Get Used to the Bad Temperaments of Those You Deal With
..like getting used to ugly faces. This is advisable in situations of dependency. There are horrible people you can neither live with nor live without. It’s a necessary skill, therefore to get used to them, as to ugliness, so you’re not surprised each time their harshness manifests itself. At first they’ll frighten you, but gradually your initial horror will disappear and caution will anticipate or tolerate the unpleasantness.
My lamentation about not being a tramp has nothing to do with morality. It refers to Tramp on the Disney film “Lady and the Tramp”.
Do you recall that scene in the alley behind the restaurant when Tramp eloquently slurps up a string of pasta? Bob was boiling up a pot of pasta for dinner tonight (unfortunately not mine but his) and when I barked my “tribute” Bob dangled a linguine noodle in front of my eyes and what a mess as I just about took off his finger in a “pasta lunge”. How clumsy of me and Bob said I should take it easy and concentrate on elegance not savagery. He tried it again without much success and a piece stuck on the back of my noggin which Bob discovered an hour later after it congealed. What an embarrassment. Bob said that Dylan the Westie was an expert and noted, “You should have seen him with bucatini!!!! No worries Rory lots of practice awaits as after all….you are still a puppy!”
SILENCE IS GOLDEN: I am free to “explore” my surroundings in peace and quiet without observant and often disapproving human commentary. This may include “accidents”, chewing what puppies aren’t supposed to chew and jumping on the sofa. Silence rarely is infinite as suspicions are aroused quickly when I disappear. Bob and Fay refer to my puppyism as poppycock as to them SILENCE IS TROUBLE. My puppydom is replete with contradictions!
“I’m an admirer of names, though the Christian fashions fall far below savage customs in this particular. The biggest coward I ever knew as called Lyon; and his wife, Patience, would scold you out of hearing in less time than a hunted deer would run a rod. With an Indian tis’ a matter of conscience; what he calls himself he generally is-not that Chingachgook, which signifies Big Serpent, is really a snake, big or little; but that he understands the windings and turnings of human natur’, and is silent, and strikes his enemies when they least expect him.”
James Fenimore Cooper, “The Last of the Mohicans”, 1826.
I returned to the Peninsula Bangkok feeling better and joyous the air conditioning in the room was not a la polar vortex. I performed a Google search as to a Thai remedy for a cold and selected Tom Ka Kai served in half coconut shell, coconut-based broth, basil, lemon grass, chili, lime leaves, coriander and chili oil with rice on the side with shrimp chips and tofu and chili dip with a cold Chang Lager. The dish sounded spicy but no effect on me as I sat enjoying a cold beer overlooking the Chao Phraya River. Then bang just like the fireworks we saw over the river last night! Within five minutes, tingling heat roaring up the face into the scalp. I am on fire! Thank goodness this lasted no more than 5 minutes and it cleared up everything.
A great man’s conduct should not be petty. You should never go into minute details, especially with unpleasant things, because although it’s an advantage to notice everything casually, it isn’t to want to inquire into every last thing. Triviality is annoying, and in a person’s character, tedious.
The regime of enforced naps is dissipating. As I progress into six months of age I am gaining stamina and perhaps at most have two short naps instead of the four of my early puppydom. I am now more of a power napper. Bob says this means more time for mischief and misbehaving. He calls this new period of my life “the terrible twos”. What that term means I have no idea but I know what terrible means? I am not two yet so how can the terrible twos apply to me?
Why should I come when called to do so? What is wrong with hiding under the bed when I have done something inappropriate? I am a puppy so offer me some compassion. I am still having accidents although far less so. It is all because Bob and Fay are not taking me out every 30 minutes, so what is the problem? They should anticipate when I have to go. What’s wrong with biting Fay’s big fluffy slippers. I’m just practicing my Westie prey instinct! Bob and Fay simply don’t understand me.
Bob has told me after I am “fixed” (whatever that means) I will be enrolled in puppy school to be trained. Being naturally intelligent (and modest) I’ll graduate with honours.
After Bob chased me in the snowy backyard several times this week at 05:00 now swearing I am to go to military academy to learn real discipline. The academy is called “Westiepoint”. It has trained some of the great West Highland Terriers but like so many British boarding schools destroyed even more with its rabid (pardon the expression) discipline and cruelty. Bob shouts, “Behave or else! Those German Sheppard drill sergeants will knock some sense into you!”. I do not like what I hear! I Excuse me I have to bark by the sliding door to advise Bob I must do some business outside. After Bob had told me he and Dylan the Westie were attacked by a German Sheppard military academy does not appeal to me.
16October2025: No Guilt Shopping and Observations on Poverty and Luxury
I have purposely opted out of the day’s tour itinerary not feeling particularly well and exhausted by all the travelling and a late night yesterday. I miss a cruise on the Chao Phraya River, but I did that last night. Yet more temples. The plenitude of temples is vaguely reminiscent of Rome with a church on every corner as beautiful as each church may be but repetition leads to numbness.
I tank up on water to hydrate and walk 10 minutes down the street to Icon Siam Shopping Mall a temple of Thai commerce all 12 or so floors of it. After so much water multiple WC’s (immaculately clean) on each floor are appreciated.
The street is rough and ready as you exit the hotel. Raunchy shops and a few stalls selling street food screaming “avoidance”! My grandmother visited Germany in 1947 returning home with a tapeworm. There is a 7 11 convenience store and very marginal looking restaurants. There are many tailors. A cross street has a canal bordering it and there is a look of poverty. Bangkok is a city of luxury interspersed with poverty or is it poverty interspersed with luxury? This is apparent from our hotel room view and a cruise on the river.
The Icon Siam Mall is a vertical one some 12 stories high. Food stalls, grocery stores and a few tacky souvenir shops but keep walking upwards and this is a true luxury mall with some high-end outlets, car dealerships, financial offices and some chain stores like Uniqlo and HMV. Fascinating shopper mix with a global feel. Saudis, Asians and Europeans happily shopping away.
I gave a thought to grabbing a lunch at the ground floor with its many kitchens and stalls, but the food does not appeal and far less enticing and authentic than at the Ion Centre in Singapore. On the top two floors one finds more authentic higher end eateries. None of my excursion is on the tour itinerary but it has been a guilt free cultural learning experience.
A Bird's Eye View of Fashion, Food, Travel, Culture, Beverage and Curiosity 